After the interview, my Dad headed to work and David and I joined the rest of the Ames's (most of them) for breakfast at a local diner. While eating, I spotted my high-school environmental club advisor with his wife and a bunch of students, waiting for a table - what a surprise! It amazes me how often I run into people I know in Salt Lake; after years in Berkeley, I've come to expect not to see many familiar faces.
I saw the last LOTR with friends after breakfast, and then we ate vegetarian beef and other things at Long Life Veggie House, then hunted for Christmas Street - a street of houses that covered themselves in lights for Christmas - only to learn that it no longer exists. Then Clio,
Then we drove back to east Salt Lake (I almost said East Bay!) and wandered the cemetery next to Clio's house, which was magically alight with candles in sacks and the floating park lights of cars (and the occasional headlights of the inconsiderate). We frolicked around a few candles and noticed that a few had burned their enclosures. When we got too cold to wander more, we disbanded for the night.
The next day
I got almost everybody books and games this year. I had to restrain myself with kids' presents - there are just too many really cool things out there that I want to get for my cousins, but shouldn't because I'll go broke if I do. I'm giving them a collective present of starry ceilings with the accurate summer night sky. I have a kit (projectors distort too much), extra paint, and star charts for the older ones, and am going to promise painting service for all but the two that live in France. I had a starry ceiling as a kid, and loved it.